Issue 236

By JOSEPH MWAMUNYANGE

Nairobi, Kenya, July 24, 2006 – With telephone charges already started being reduced by some operators in Tanzania, the trend is expected to intensify after the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) is launched.

The pioneer of telecommunication services in the country the Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd (TTCL) has embarked on a modernization drive that has seen it reduce tariffs for most of its services.

It is expected that the EASSy project, which aims to develop an undersea fiber optic cable along the East African seaboard that will provide ample connectivity and capacity among African countries and the rest of the world, will greatly boost this reduction.

Following in the footsteps of TTCL, Tanzania’s cellular phone operator Vodacom has slashed international call rates by up to 62 per cent. This is one area where Tanzanian consumers stand to gain under EASSy, given that currently international calls from Tanzania are routed through Europe or the United States, making them expensive.

TTCL communications manager Issa Semtawa told The EastAfrican that the impact of EASSy will be immense, adding that countries should prepare themselves for the much bigger capacity to be provided through the marine cable.

"The cable will provide large capacity to our countries and it is up to us to get ready to make full use of this capacity. That is why every country taking part has been told to enhance local networks so as to take full advantage of EASSy," said Mr. Semtawa.

TTCL was part of a consortium of telecommunications companies given the responsibility of initiating the project in 2002. Others were Telkom Kenya, Uganda Telecommunications Corporation, MTN, Zanzibar Telecommunications and data operators.

Mr. Semtawa said that instead of using centers outside Africa to route calls, this will now be done between countries in Africa "instead of centers in Europe via satellite, which made the distance for calls longer and expensive. Currently if somebody wants to call the Democratic Republic of Congo from Tanzania, he has to go through Belgium or France. Once the EASSy cable is in place, this will be done between the two countries."

Countries on the path of the cable will tap from the submarine cable for onward transmission to the hinterland.

Currently, the level of international telephone traffic per line in sub-Saharan Africa is the highest in any region in the world.

However, international connectivity in Africa is scarce, expensive and unreliable. African carriers pay hundreds of millions of dollars per year to switch intra-Africa traffic through foreign carriers.

Experts say that existing and planned systems in East Africa are only partial solutions. Africa’s telecommunications are changing: deregulation and privatization are introducing new telecommunications carriers thus requiring additional capacity.

Entities that have shown interest in the project include MTN Uganda, Botswana Telecom Corporation, Telecom Malagasy, Sudan Telecom (Sudatel), Zanzibar Telecom (Zantel), Rwanda Tel, Telkom South Africa and Djibouti Telecom.

Others are Dalkom Somalia , Uganda Telecom, Telkom Kenya , Malawi Telecom, Sentech-South Africa, TDM-Mozambique and Onatel Burundi .

Lesotho Telecom Authority, Vodacom SA, Teleglobe, Ethiopian Telecom Corporation, Telecel Burundi, Mauritius Telecom, Kenya Data Networks, Satcom Networks Africa Ltd, Zambia Telecom (Zamtel), British telecom (BT), and France Telecom have also shown an interest.

Eligible operators from Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Seychelles, Eritrea, Democratic Republic of Congo and Comoros and Mayotte are also expected to join and invest in the system.

Source: The East African